Bali Hai

 I finally finished reading a book

    I know!  Took me 5 weeks, but I finished Tales of the South Pacific.

    I saw the movie South Pacific.  I was in the play South Pacific.  We recently saw the pay South Pacific.

    I figured it was time to read the book that inspired the play and movie.

    The book is actually a collection of stories.  Some of them are related, some not.  Characters drift in and out of stories, but the main character is the narrator.  (OK...explain, please.  character and narrator sound the same at the end but have divergent spellings.  Or maybe I am pronouncing narrator wrong.)

    I enjoyed the book.  But it was an eye opener.

    The racism that existed is kind of shocking.  Blacks in the service were relegated to roles like truck driver, cook, but not combat roles for the most part.  The book included a naval commander that did not want them to be in his company so he treated them harshly.

    Americans fell in love with Polynesian women, but could not marry them because the women  were not white.

    But it is also a story of bravery and sacrifice and there was a time toward the end that I did get a little misty-eyed because the final chapter is beautifully written.

    I sat on the porch reading today, and the hot temperature and the cool breeze were the same conditions the warriors faced, but I could go into air conditioning for a respite and they could only hope to find shade.

    If you are looking for a summer read, I highly recommend it.  The regular size print edition is 329 pages, heaven knows how big the large print edition is.  I got it through an inter-library loan from the Mt. Carroll library.  The edition I read was published in 1950....when I was just starting to walk.

    A baseball digression. 

    Cincinnati brought in a 31 year old rookie  relief pitcher in tonight's game.  He spent 7 years in the minor leagues and 2 years in independent league play

    I actually admired the guy and hope he does well.  He stuck with the sport for 9 years before finally getting to the majors.

    That is perseverance.

Peace an Love

        Especially Peace